…NITDA launches national tracker
…Private sector accounts for 60% of reported training as women make up 32.9% of beneficiaries
Nigeria has recorded 2.77 million digital literacy training achievements against a target of 50 million by 2027, as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) launches a national dashboard to track training programmes and improve coordination among stakeholders.
Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General of NITDA, disclosed this at the DL4ALL 2026 National Digital Literacy Workshop in Abuja on Tuesday, saying 252 organisations had reported a combined 2,769,512 training achievements on the platform.
The figure represents 5.54% of the 50 million target. The reported activities cover all 774 local government areas and 14,664 communities, according to data presented at the workshop.
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Nigeria aims to achieve 70% digital literacy by 2027 and 95% by 2030.
The dashboard is designed to track digital literacy interventions, identify communities that have received little training and help organisations coordinate their activities.
Abdullahi said digital literacy should enable Nigerians to use technology to improve productivity in their existing occupations rather than focus solely on training people for careers in information technology.
“Our ambition is not to turn every Nigerian into an IT professional. Our ambition is to make every Nigerian digitally capable,” he said.
The data shows that private companies account for the largest share of reported training. Of the 252 organisations on the dashboard, 151 are companies, representing 59.9%. Government institutions account for 43 organisations, or 17.1%, while 34 non-governmental organisations represent 13.5%.
Cisco leads the list of contributors with 1,073,604 reported training achievements, followed by NITDA with 960,424 and Meta Platforms with 333,816.
Other contributors include Imo Digital City Limited, with 72,896; the Ministry of Innovation and Digital Economy in Sokoto State, with 58,573; and the Bureau for Information and Communications Technology and Digital Economy, with 56,582.
Abdullahi said the figures showed the role of the private sector in expanding digital literacy, adding that the government could not meet its targets without the participation of businesses, state governments, educational institutions and civil society organisations.
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However, the data highlights gaps in participation among women, rural residents and persons with disabilities.
Women account for 32.9% of recorded beneficiaries, below the 50% participation balance Abdullahi said the programme should target. The dashboard also records 17,156 beneficiaries with disabilities and 65,767 rural beneficiaries.
He called for increased efforts to reach the groups, noting that barriers to participation must be addressed to ensure wider access to digital skills training.
The dashboard is expected to help organisations identify locations and competency areas already covered by existing programmes and direct resources to communities and groups that remain underserved.
Abdullahi said the number of people trained alone was not sufficient to measure the programme’s success, stressing the need to assess whether participants could apply their skills to improve their work, businesses and daily lives.
Adetunji Adeyemo, Acting Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, also called for greater emphasis on the outcomes of digital literacy programmes.
He said progress should be measured by how effectively Nigerians apply acquired skills to improve productivity and access digital services, rather than by the number of people trained.
Adeyemo said achieving the national targets required coordination among government institutions, private companies, educational institutions and development partners.
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NITDA’s National Digital Literacy Framework sets common competency standards for training programmes while allowing participating organisations to develop content suited to their audiences.
The agency is also considering revisions to the framework to incorporate emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.
The initiative forms part of the federal government’s digital transformation agenda and its ambition to build a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
The challenge for Nigeria is to convert reported training achievements into measurable improvements in digital proficiency, productivity and access to economic opportunities.
